Did Mani Ratnam suggest Lijo name to direct Randamoozham of MT ?

 

Fans imagination of Bhima

Randamoozham the all time classic novel written by Late M T Vasudevan Nair is to be directed by a top Director selected by Mani Ratnam and accepted by the Late Author. As per sources, MT's daughter Aswathi V Nair who hold the rights had initiated a dialogue between MT and Mani Ratnam and the Director had said that he does not have the time to involve in a big project that requires years to fulfill. He had at that time was involved in the making of the Kalki's Ponniyin Selvan novel. He then was asked to suggest the name of another Director. He then said a name of the person and it was approved by MT. As further talks were to go forward, MT fell ill.

Aswathy had piloted the web series Manorathangal production with the help of Priyadarshan who coordinated with OTT platforms. The project Randamoozham was initially given to Director Srikumar Menon who directed Odiyan. Menon had got producers B R Shetty to fund it with a Rs 1000 crore budget. As the project was dragging, MT took back the rights from Menon. At the outset, Hariharan who had directed MT's novel was tipped to do the project.

Now the talk is that Mani has recommended Director Lijo Jose Palliserry who directed Malaikottai Valliban with Mohanlal. Lijo has two production houses that has co- produced films. The book is a look at Mahabhartham through te eyes of Bhima. He is always second to everyone despite his contributions to the victory in the war. Even his son's death in the war stands second to the death of Arjunan's son.

he book unravels all the hardships and dilemmas encountered by Bhima which remain unnoticed. It explores the emotions of the mighty Pandava as a son, brother, husband, and father. The story brings to light his affection for his wife, Draupadi, and how unnoticed his acts of love remain. The novel has been translated into multiple languages. It was translated into English as Second Turn by P. K. Ravindranath in 1997. Another English translation by Gita Krishnankutty published in 2013 is titled Bhima: Lone Warrior.^[4][5] The book was translated into Tamil by Kurunjivelan as Irandaam Idam with the cover illustration by Trotsky Marudu. source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randamoozham

Iruvar the movie : A Pongal Flashback 25 years back

 Iruvar made my Pongal day memorable. It was 25 years back on a Pongal day, I hobbled on the steps of Woodlands Theater to see the film. ( I was in crutches and had two friends- RK and Charles as escort ). I wanted to see the film for two reasons -   I was the first to break the story that it was a film on MGR- Karunanidhi and secondly Mohanlal was playing MGR under the direction of Mani Ratnam and Santosh Sivan was the cameraman.

I was sitting under a tree in Old Woodlands Hotel chatting with makeup man M O Devassia. He told me about doing the MGR type makeup for Mohanlal and the the details of it that took place in Merryland Studios at Trivandrum. He did not realise that the casual info he was passing was something that Tamil media was groping around. A heavily guarded secret. After it was published in  front page of SCREEN , it was picked up by a top selling vernacular magazine. I remember Alai Osai Mani who  known to break such news come up and congratulate me. I kept Devassia name out of it.

I went to Trivandrum and managed to enter Merryland studios. The part where Iruvar shoot was on but it was a no entry zone. There was nothing I could get. After this story, all media was about Karunanidhi then CM going to crush the film release. It is said that Vairamuthu the lyric writer of the film combed the film and after a few cuts, got ok from Karunanidhi.

I sat in the ground floor back row as I did not want to take steps to Balcony. As the show started, there was hardly anybody in the movie hall. After some time, a couple sitting in front of us started to get amorous. My pal got up and took a seat that had nobody sitting in front of him.  The other pal told the couple to go elsewhere and continue.

Talking about the film's merits has no relevance -  masterpiece of Mani Ratnam and best of Santosh's camerawork. The empty hall broke my heart and created a confusion - Are we critics far away from reality ?. Mani Ratnam continues to blaze on and Tamil cinema has come a full circle- now we have Thalaivi , a biopic on Jayalaaithaa. Looking back , I find it amusing that it was a Northern heroine who played Jayalalithaa , in both the films. Aishwarya Rai in Iruvar and Kangana Raut in Thalaivi.

For Iruvar failure, it was said that MGR - Karunanidhi fans were disappointed as no one emerged victorious, For the poor opening , it was said by casting Mohanlal- Aishwarya Rai , the film did not relate to Tamil audience. A day later `Bharathi Kannamma' was released and in Southern Districts of Tamil Nadu it created  strong protests. It was about a Thevar girl falling in love with a Dalit youth, This film marked the entry of director Cheran and the controversy helped. If  ManiRatnam did not subject to unofficial censoring it could have a been a hit ?. It could have been banned also.   Kathalukku Mariyathaai which put Vijay on Superstar category released just before for Christmas  , replaced Iruvar in many theaters. In the running was Ajith's Nesam for Pongal and failed to create a stir.

Mani Ratnam hid the death of a horse at Ponniyin Selvan film locale - Case booked

  

Mani Ratnam ,has been booked under the e Prevention of Cruelty to Animals  and so also the veterinarian   ( are per AWBI rules should have been present on the spot )  did not intimate any authority. The horse was given a quiet burial at the ground. After the whistleblower informed PETA and who informed AWBI, the carcass was dug out and send for post mortem. Aishwrya Rai Bachchan and Trisha, two PETA activists are part of the cast of the film. Aishwarya Rai had tweeted  photos herself astride a horse and elephant from film locales.  The film in the final stage of shooting in Gwalior had run into trouble with Jhansi police. 18 horses from Chennai were found in 5 mini lorries. They were taken by the police and kept in a field. After verifying with Mani Ratnam, Gwalior SP released the horses. The horses in Chennai are trained for film shooting and action directors can easily use them for action scenes. There was a action director called Horse Babu. Cover photo was of horses seized in Jhansi and kept in a field. Horses were used in Orchha shoot also

Trisha plays Chola Princess Kundhavai in this magnum opus, she plays Jayam Ravi's elder sister and Karthi's pair. Jayam Ravi essays the titular role of Ponniyin Selvan while Karthi plays Vandhiyathevan.

"In the age of computer-generated imagery (CGI), production companies have no excuse for forcing exhausted horses to play at war until one of them drops dead," said PETA India Chief Advocacy Officer Khushboo Gupta. AWBI wrote to the Hyderabad District Collector and the Telangana State Animal Welfare Board to conduct an inquiry into the death, a release from PETA said. PETA India has also offered a reward of Rs 25,000 for a video or photograph of the incident in which the horse died, which may help lead to the culprits’ arrests. Such evidence should be shared with PETA India at Info@petaindia.org.

"Compassionate, forward-thinking filmmakers would never dream of hauling sensitive animals to a chaotic movie set and forcing them to ‘act’. PETA India is calling on director Mani Ratnam to cut the cruelty and switch to modern and humane CGI and other visual-effects technology," the PETA release further said.

Earlier there was reports that Madras Talkies the production house owned by Mani Ratnam had shot most of the scenes in Philippines as the laws regarding use of animals are lax. All that was needed was an undertaking from the production house to AWBI under such circumstances was that it was CGI shots. As Covid 19 played havoc, the production company had to finish off the work in Ramoji Film City.